I figured out the other day that I have been a handspinner of my own yarns now for over 20 years. The funny thing is that I spent about a year at the time being angry that I hadn’t come upon spinning earlier in my life. Being about 50 years old at the time, I figured I had wasted 30 whole years, just down the tube, not following my bliss in the world of spinning.

But I figure I’ve made up for it. Today I sat down trying to figure out how many spinning wheels I have owned during that time. As an aside, when I got my second wheel Sam asked about selling the first wheel. I asked him how many lawn mowers he owned, and the subject was dropped, never to be raised again.

I got into spinning because we had three 4-H sheep that hadn’t attained sufficient growth when sale time came around. We bought and finished them. With that much wool on the hoof, and being an avid knitter besides parsimonious, and the Salt Lake Weavers Store still being in existence at the time and still offering lessons, I soon enrolled myself.

It seemed obvious that I should try all the wheels they had in stock before deciding which to buy. So I spent pretty much a full day trying out wheels. Problem was, I didn’t really know how to spin, so how was I to evaluate wheels? Chicken and egg problem. I was counseled then, and still believe the advice is good, to try out everything possible, but to start learning to spin on a drop spindle.

A drop spindle is not named such because you drop it often (although you do, especially at first), but because it spins as you drop it from your hand, rather than twirling it on your thigh or a bowl, Technically, the drop spindle is a high-whorl spindle, and the one that is twirled in place is a low-whorl spindle. More on this subject in the next coumn.

And here are the reasons why. My brother is in town, and we see him infrequently enough that I invited the whole gang over Tuesday night for posole. So far, I have managed to burn two batches of posole, so it’s back to the store, this time for canned hominy, to which I will add the other ingredients for a good posole: onions, pork, green chiles, tomatoes and garlic. With any luck, the third time will be the charm, and I won’t be sitting here, fiddling in front of the computer while the dinner burns. Nero fiddled. Hopefully Adrien doesn’t.

I’ll laugh about this tomorrow. Today it’s not so funny. Doors open. Fans on. Back to the store.

Wednesday morning is here, and the third iteration of posole, using canned hominy, was great. I may never go back to posole from dried hominy, although I must admit I’ve said the same thing about dried versus canned pinto beans, and the former are much better. Speaking of pinto beans, I’ll end this discourse by saying that you don’t get a much better meal than pinto beans and posole mixed. C&P, Aunt Mimi used to call it. Chile and posole. Give it a try.

And, yes, the new pinto bean harvest is in. You might have to go to Dove Creek for them, but then again they might be available right here in town.

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